DRIVERS could save thousands of dollars from a new bill that targets unfair towing practices.

Lawmakers have empathized with those who have been hit with unreasonable towing fees.

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North Carolina drivers could save thousands from a new towing bill[/caption]

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Lawmakers are targeting towing companies that use unfair practices and add-on fees[/caption]

Towing companies across North Carolina could face harsher penalties if they are caught charging consumers unfair fees, as reported by NBC’s affiliate WRAL.

Drivers often complain that towing companies typically charge a confusing combination of fees, including a base charge (like a hook-up fee) and a per-mile charge.

Some companies even tack on additional fees, including storage, after-hours service, or special equipment charges.

Under House Bill 199, the state would create a new government group, called the North Carolina Towing and Recovery Commission, that have the power to issue and revoke permits to tow truck businesses.

Leaders of the group would be picked by the governor and the state legislature.

The bill would also require towing companies and local businesses to make consumers and drivers aware of potential towing practices using explicit language or prominent signage.

Several lawmakers have backed the bill, including Representative Carson Smith.

“I’m not big on increasing the size of government … but this is a mess,” said Smith, during Tuesday’s debate.

During the debate, Smith recalled a story of a trucker in his district who was charged $3,500 to get his rig back after a towing incident.

Another representative, Carolyn Logan, said she recounts a tractor-trailer that was parked illegally in Charlotte, North Carolina, had been targeted, with the driver still waiting inside the truck.

The driver’s truck was booted by a local towing company, and it cost $12,000 to take the boot off.

Lawmakers agreed that drivers across the nation are facing unnecessary towing fees that most people cannot afford.

“This is a serious problem that we have going on in our state,” Logan said.

The problem is that there isn’t a universal, standardized towing fee structure across all locations.

Towing fees vary widely based on factors like location, distance, vehicle size, and time of day.

While some jurisdictions, like New York City, may have set maximum rates, the actual costs charged by towing companies often depend on those factors.

This bill also hopes to create a database that towing companies would be required to update with the vehicles they take, where they take them, and how much they charge.

That way, drivers who realize their vehicle has been towed can navigate the database and easily retrieve their car.

The database, a crucial part of the bill, would be run by the state.

“It protects not just our small businesses in the trucking and towing industries, but it protects consumers as well,” said Representative Laura Budd.

MADELEINE McCann prime suspect Christian Brueckner stayed in a “wild camping” ground on land now being scoured by cops, The Sun can reveal.

Search teams have zeroed in on scrubland between Brueckner’s old home and the apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal where Maddie was snatched in May 2007.

Dan Charity

Dan Charity

Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Beurckner pictured arriving in to court in 2024[/caption]

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Madeleine McCann disappeared in Praia da Luz, Portugal on May 3, 2007[/caption]

And German police leading the hunt hope the convicted child sex fiend and rapist may have left vital clues which could finally nail him for Maddie’s murder.

Searchers were yesterday focusing on at least five derelict farmhouses and barns where Brueckner camped at the time the British tot was taken.

Sun analysis of a June 2007 satellite image of one building being searched yesterday revealed what appeared to be a white tent pitched within its walls.

The stone-walled property was photographed from space on June 22, 2007 – seven weeks after Maddie was taken from her family’s Ocean Club apartment a five minute drive away.

Recent pictures of the same spot show the building’s massive deterioration – and lay bare the enormous task facing police seeking elusive scraps of DNA evidence.

The 2007 images shows the roofless cottage or barn is approximately 58ft long by 25ft wide with a white, 9ft tent like structure pitched inside its walls.

It is impossible to say whether the building was occupied by Brueckner or one of a number of hippie types living in the area in camper vans and tents at the time.

But fading hopes of finding evidence linking him to the three-year-old British tot were also being hampered by the march of time yesterday.

Chain saws and diggers were drafted in to excavate ground and clear thick undergrowth which has overwhelmed many of the abandoned buildings.

And luxury holiday homes have been built on other key spots within a ten acre area being combed by scores of Portuguese and German cops.

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The abandoned house was scoured in the first day of the Maddie search[/caption]

Teams spent yesterday toiling in 29C heat at the seaside search plot in an area called Atalaia, a mile east of the Ocean Club and half a mile from Brueckner’s old house.

Ground penetrating radar scanners – capable of finding bodies 15 feet below ground – were also drafted into the grim search.

Locals said the spot close to a cliff was once a romantic spot where Portuguese couples would canoodle after dark in their cars.

But by the early noughties the open scrubland offering sea views and no parking charges attracted a foreign “wild camper” set – believed to include Brueckner.

Police are believed to have launched their “last throw of the dice” search after tip-offs from associates about the area and geolocation checks of his computer hardware.

Local man Joao Pedro, 63, who grew up in the area, told The Sun: “It used to be a romantic spot – I used to take my girlfriends there.

“But at the time Maddie went missing in the noughties it was very popular with foreign campers and you’d see camper vans and tents there all time.

“It was totally unregulated back then and strangers would just pitch up and stay there for free and no one would bother them.”

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A police source at the scene told The Sun yesterday that searches were focusing on the area because Brueckner used to camp in the buildings.

One officer said: “We are here because Brueckner used to camp here. Not only Brueckner but many people.”

The Sun also examined historic satellite imagery showing Brueckner’s single story house around half a mile from the current search site at the time of the abduction.

Images recorded in 2006 and 2007 show vehicles resembling his distinctive VW camper van nearby.

He moved out of the white and yellow bungalow in late 2006 but a white roofed van still appears to be parked outside it in June 2007 after Maddie was snatched.

A white structure erected close to his house in 2006 when he lived there also appears to have vanished the following year.

Imagery also shows scores of open wells across the entire search area which were being drained and methodically checked for clues yesterday.

Wider satellite pictures taken in 2007 show a string of building plots around the current search area – which have since become luxury homes and holiday estates.

The worst fear of officers is that Brueckner could have hidden Maddie’s body or vital clues in the foundations of buildings which would now be impossible to excavate.

Hopes that telltale fragments of clothing – like the missing tot’s pink Eeyore pyjamas – might be found are also remote.

German federal officers are racing against time to find vital DNA clues after the 48-year-old fiend Brueckner boasted he would “go to ground” when he is released in September.

The vile pervert – who cops are convinced took and killed Maddie – is currently due to finish a seven year sentence for raping a 72-year-old woman in Praia da Luz in 2005.

A Portuguese police source said last night: “This really is a last ditch effort – search teams here are hoping they get lucky.

“Officers are determined to do everything they possibly can before Brueckner walks free. They know what is at stake.”

ISRAEL has issued a warning to Greta Thunberg’s so-called Freedom Flotilla as the climate activist aims to sail into Gaza.

The Swede is pulling the dangerous stunt after leaving from Catania, Italy, on Sunday aboard the Madleen.

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Greta Thunberg sits aboard the aid ship Madleen during the stunt[/caption]

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Thunberg and the Madleen are currently south of Greece[/caption]

The boat, carrying 11 pro-Palestine protesters, is currently south of Crete and is aiming directly for the terror hotbed with only a “symbolic” amount of aid.

The young campaigners say they are hoping to “break the siege” and raise “international awareness” of the humanitarian crisis on the Gaza Strip.

Thunberg, 22, has posted on social media with a Palestine flag and wearing a keffiyeh scarf while on the pointless journey.

Israel is prepared to raid the ship, IDF spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin said.

He said: “We have gained experience in recent years, and we will act accordingly.”

One activist on board has said they are being followed by a drone – a month after another boat under the same flag was allegedly attacked by one.

In a video on social media, one of Greta’s shipmates said: “We can clearly see a drone to our left. It’s gaining on us a little bit.”

Organisers of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition say their voyage is “a non-violent, direct action to challenge Israel’s illegal siege”.

Ahead of the journey, Thunberg said through tears: “we are doing this because, no matter what odds we are against, we have to keep trying.

“Because the moment we stop trying is when we lose our humanity.

“And no matter how dangerous this mission is, it’s not even near as dangerous as the silence of the entire world in the face of the live-streamed genocide.”

Israel rejects any accusation it is conducting a genocide and says the accusations are an anti-Semitic “blood libel”.

Israel is, instead, aiming to wipe out the terror group Hamas which conducted the bloody October 7, 2023, massacre killing 1,200 people and taking 250 hostage.

Hamas is accused of using innocent Palestinian civilians as shields and holding aid meant for them to ransom.

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Gaza has been hammered by the IDF as it aims to wipe out Hamas[/caption]

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Displaced people are seen near temporary shelters in Gaza[/caption]

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The crew aboard the Madleen[/caption]

US Senator Lindsey Graham has slammed the flotilla saying: “Hope Greta and her friends can swim!”

Negotiations are ongoing to find peace in the strip, with Israel last week signing up to a US proposal.

Israel has paused aid delivery after soldiers opened fire on people heading toward an aid site.

Gaza health officials, the Red Cross and the U.N. rights office said 27 people were killed on Tuesday, and witnesses blamed Israeli forces.

Israels military said it fired near people it described as suspects who it said approached its forces and ignored warning shots.

It says it is looking into reports of casualties.

The UN has warned that Gaza had become “the hungriest place on Earth”.

It said the territory’s entire population was at risk of famine.

It comes after Israel eliminated defacto Hamas Gaza chief Mohammad Sinwar, also known as “The Shadow”.

It comes after reports that the chief, who was also one of the October 7 masterminds, had likely been killed in an Israeli airstrike on May 13.

Israel appears to have successfully eliminated Sinwar Jr by bombing what it said was Hamas’ command centre under the European Hospital in the southern Gaza Strip.

DRONE after drone can be seen hammering Russia’s nuclear bomber fleet and turning it into flaming wrecks, new footage released by Ukraine shows.

Operation Spiderweb can now astonishingly be seen in the clearest picture yet as 35 of the kamikaze craft spiral down onto the doomsday planes.

Kyiv’s daring raid destroyed 41 Russian planes – costing an estimated $7bn (£5.4bn) to Moscow’s coffers and humiliating Vladimir Putin.

New footage released as Ukraine doubles down on embarrassing Vlad shows the kill shots for dozens of the drones – with bombers left burning on the tarmac.

Kamikaze drones line up their target and then spiral down onto the planes.

Footage cuts out just as the drones blow themselves up.

But other drones from the swarm already in the air capture the moments wings, cabins and fuselage are bombed.

One clip shows a drone descending down onto a bomber, as an identical one can be seen burning in a heap behind it.

Another, shows a row of planes burning in a line along the side of the runway.

Several drones are able to fly so close to the planes without any Russian defences that they can land on them.

Red and orange flames erupt into black smoke on the runways as the next craft in the swarm looks for its target.

Ukraine’s spy agency which conducted the attack – the SBU – employed 117 drones in the daring operation to target Tu-95MS and Tu-22M strategic bombers, and A-50 spy planes.

The fresh drone strike footage comes after other footage emerged on Wednesday showing the trucks carrying the craft beginning the operation.

Clueless lorry drivers then parked the containers next to Russian airbases – where they sat and waited in plain sight.

Nondescript shipping containers parked in laybys and verges had attracted little attention – before their lids blew open and the drone swarms poured out.

Russian civilians stood in awe as they saw the drones zoom out of the containers and head in the direction of the bases.

The targeted air bases were: Olenya in the Arctic Murmansk region, Belaya in the Irkutsk region of Siberia, Dyagilevo in Ryazan region, and Ivanovo-Severny in Ivanovo region.

Footage caught one truck self destruct as Russian civilians climbed into it.

Each of the 117 drones had its own dedicated pilot and Russia had little defences to protect its bases and stop them.

The covert drone plot – 18 months in the planning – targeted four airfields deep inside Russia, and is reminiscent of the most daring raids of WW2 that turned the tide against the Nazis.

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky oversaw the operation and said: “It’s genuinely satisfying when something I authorized a year and six months ago comes to fruition and deprives Russians of over forty units of strategic aviation.

“We will continue this work.”

In Putin’s first appearance since the attack, the tyrant did not mention the attack.

Instead, in a meeting with officials, he branded Zelensky’s government as “terrorists” for killing civilians.

Something the Kremlin dictator has done on an industrial scale in Ukraine’s cities.

Putin talked about attacks by Ukraine on Russia’s rail network – which led to two train crashes and killing civilians.

Satellite pictures have also confirmed the destruction – with burnt wrecks of ash and metal left lying on the tarmac.

Some debris has been hastily removed – perhaps in an attempt to conceal the scale of the destruction.

Despite the humiliating blow, Putin has laid out ridiculous demands for peace in Ukraine.

The deranged tyrant’s negotiators said an end to the war would only be agreed if Kyiv surrenders huge chunks of territory and accepts limits on the size of its army.

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Satellite images showed the planes burned out on the ground[/caption]

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Vladimir Putin has been left humiliated in by the attack[/caption]

Despite being left red-faced by the mammoth assault, Putin’s mouthpieces shamelessly gave his terms for a ceasefire during a second round of direct peace talks in Istanbul on Monday.

Its first section contained Moscow‘s “basic parameters of a final settlement”.

The sham proposal demands Ukraine withdraw its troops from four eastern regions that Russia only partly occupies at the moment.

It also ordered that the international community recognise Crimea as Russia’s sovereign territory – after they annexed the peninsula in 2014.

MEGHAN Markle has shared a bizarre video of herself TWERKING to induce labour with Lilibet.

The Duchess of Sussex, 43, posted the clip on Instagram in celebration of her daughter’s fourth birthday.

Meghan caption the video: “Four years ago today, this also happened.

“Both of our children were a week past their due dates… so when spicy food, all that walking, and acupuncture didn’t work – there was only one thing left to do!”

The mum-of-two could be seen twerking to The Drake Family’s cover of Starrkeisha’s The Baby Momma Dance.

Meghan wiggled her hips and showed off a twirl next to her hospital bed.

Prince Harry made a comical appearance wearing a grey hoodie.

He shuffled across the room before dropping it down low at the same time as Meghan.

The couple looked relaxed as they filmed their moves while waiting to welcome Lilibet into the world.

The bizarre video follows heartwarming pictures shared of the four-year-old.

The Duchess posted a sweet snap on Instagram of the her tot as a newborn alongside a picture of Lilibet in the present day.

Meghan said that each day has been “brighter and better” after Lili came into the world.

She captioned the post: “Happy birthday to our beautiful girl!

“Four years ago today she came into our lives – and each day is brighter and better because of it.

“Thanks to all of those sending love and celebrating her special day!”

The family will likely celebrate privately at their California home, continuing their tradition of sharing glimpses of their children’s special moments with the public through social media.

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Meghan also shared this sweet picture of her cradling Lilibet after her birth[/caption]

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A second black and white snap appeared to show her cuddling the youngster on a boat[/caption]

Meghan and Harry’s daughter Lilibet is seventh in line to the British throne.

She was born in 2021 during the reign of her great-grandmother Queen Elizabeth II, whose childhood nickname was Lilibet.

It was coined when then-Princess Elizabeth was just a toddler and couldn’t pronounce her own name properly.

Her grandfather King George V would affectionately call her Lilibet as a result and it eventually stuck, coming to be used by close relatives.

Harry and Meghan are raising Lilibet and her brother Archie in an exclusive corner of Montecito, California.

The birthday post comes after Meghan recently shared a rare clip of Lili dressed in a beekeeping suit as the pair walked hand in hand to the hives.

The mum-of-two continues to reveal sneak peeks into her life at their £12million mansion.

In the video, the Duchess walked with her daughter towards the beehives, which also featured in her Netflix show With Love, Meghan.

The pair hold hands as Lili toddles along in rainbow coloured wellie-boots and her beekeeping suit.

She looks up at her mum and smiles before Meghan rubs her back and helps her with the task at hand.

In recent months, the As Ever founder has been sharing more pictures of Archie, five, and Lilibet, but without showing their faces.

And, the mum-of-two was slammed by a royal expert for whining about being a typical working mum despite having a nanny.

The Duchess admitted in April she had an “amazing” nanny who had helped her look after Archie and Lili for the past five years.

Speaking on The Sun’s Royal Exclusive Show, News.com.au’s Royal Correspondent Bronte Coy said she was “frustrated” by Meghan for “overusing” the examples of her motherly responsibilities.

The expert explained: “I have a son, but when I hear people from positions of great privilege – where they can afford nannies and a lot of help – go on and on and on about the working mum thing, it’s not the same.

“Yes, it’s time away from your kid – I definitely understand that aspect – but it’s not the same as the working mum idea that a lot of the rest of the world has to deal with.

“And so she really leaned into that a lot, and I think, well, is this a struggle that you have a lot?”

Bronte added: “You do have help. And also you are at home a lot.”

“I find that a little bit grating.”

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Prince Harry holding his daughter Lilibet[/caption]

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Meghan recently shared a clip of her and Lilibet wearing beekeeping suits[/caption]

The thespian couple is bringing back their semi-autobiographical series to Tribeca Festival two years after it was dropped by Showtime: “We really hope to have this show out there very soon, before we drop dead.”

Livestreaming today at 2 p.m. PT/5 p.m. ET, the 'Wicked' superstar will also take questions from fans ahead of the June 6 release of her 20-track recording.

Meet the new boss… same as the old boss? As the industry prepares for the AI takeover, insiders question who’s next in line at the major labels.

The series, starring Damian Hardung and Harriet Herbig-Matten, will return on Nov. 7. and be based on the second part of the bestselling novel series by author Mona Kasten.

Dave’s Hot Chicken said Monday it has been acquired by the private equity firm Roark Capital in a deal valued at $1 billion.